Arched doorway and door



July 15, 1958 E. E. KUHNKE ARCHED DCORWAY AND DOOR Filed Dec. 20, 1955 United States Patent 07 I 2. 2.80 I ARCHED nooRwAY AN!) noon Ervin E. Knhnk, Holyoke, c010.

Application December 20, 1955, Serial No. 554,180

2 Claims. CI. 20-19 This invention relates to sliding doors and arched doorways and more particularly to the provision of a novel and improved sliding door for an arched doorway.

Arched doorways, and openings are extensively used in houses and other buildings, because of their appearance, but sliding doors have not been commonly used in arched openings because the doors must move into a pocket in the side wall of the opening, and the depending portions of the arch must be slotted to receive the door. Such slots are undesirable in appearance when the doors are open and are catch-alls for dirt and debris. Also a partially open sliding door in an archway gives a generally unbalanced appearance.

With this condition in mind, the present invention was conceived and developed to provide a sliding door for an archway which: (a) when open, is adapted to fill the slots at each side of the arch to present a smooth appearing arch and prevent dirt and debris from entering the slots; (b) is formed so as to provide a symmetrically balanced appearance whatever the position of the door with respect to the arched opening; and, (c) is a simple, neat and economically constructed unit which is easy to operate and is adapted for use in many types of installations.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, all of which more fully hereinafter appear, my invention comprises certain novel constructions, combinations, and arrangements of parts and elements as hereinafter described and as defined in the appended claims, and illustrated, in preferred embodiment, in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 shows a fragment of a wall having an arched doorway therethrough with my improved sliding door therein at a partially open position.

Figure 2 is an isometric view of the wall section shown at Fig. 1, but on an enlarged scale and with portions of the wall broken away to show elements otherwise hidden from view.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary section as viewed from the indicated line 3-3 at Fig. 2, but on a further enlarged scale.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, represents a wall section such as might be found in any house or building having an arched doorway A therethrough, the doorway including upright side jams 11 and 11a and topped by an arch 12. A door D is mounted in this opening and is adapted to slide from the opening into a pocket at the one side of the wall section, when the doorway is opened. It follows that the door jam 11a adjacent to the pocket P and the arch 12 must be slotted as at 13 to accommodate the door.

My improved door D is formed as a generally rectan gular slab 14 of any conventional construction which is suspended above the doorway A in a manner which permits sliding movement into the wall pocket P whenever the door is opened, as hereinafter described. This slab 14 includes an arm 15 outstanding from the top of one edge thereof, and this arm is of the same thick- 2,842,808 Patented July 15, 1958 See ness as the slab itself with its under edge 16 arch-shaped to the configuration of the arch 12 and is thereby adapted to move into and fill the slot 13 of the arch whenever the door is open. It follows that the Wall 10 must include a second pocket at the side opposite the slab-receiving pocket to receive the arm 15 whenever the slab closes the doorway.

The wall section shown at Fig. 2 may be of any standard construction, and as one type of construction, it is represented as a conventional type, wherein studs 17 upstand from a floor plate 18 with sheet wall sections 19 at each side, the wall section being lath and plaster or of any ordinary sheet material. The construction of this wall section is modified to provide a slab-receiving pocket P adjacent the slotted jam 11, and in this section the studs and plate are slotted as at 20 to permit the door slab 14 to move therepast to abut against a regular stud 17 at the end of the pocket.

At the opposite side of the opening the arm-15 receiving pocket P is formed at the level of the arched portion of the doorway A. This pocket is bottomed by a horizontal member 21 at the level at the bottom of the arch and by a regular stud 17 at its end.

A rail bar 22 spans the space between and has itsends mounted in regular studs 17. Any suitable header, not shown, may be positioned above this rail bar for structurally reinforcing the wall and providing additional support to the rail bar if such be necessary.

The rail bar is of any conventional type and, as shown, may be squared in section, having a longitudinal slot 23 along its under side with upwardly flanged rails 24 at each side of the slot adapted to carry the Wheels 25 of suspended truck members 26 which depend from the rail bar 22 and carry the slab 14 and arm 15. Three of these truck members are shown and will usually be sufiicient to suspend and support the door. The truck member is formed as a symmetrical element attached to a channel bar 27 which is fastened to the top of the slab and arm to reinforce and hold in alignment the door D and arm 15. To complete this structure, suitable grasping handles 28 are formed in the body of the Sslab 14 near the edge 29 underneath the arm 15.

With the construction above described the edge 29 of the slab 14 and under edge 16 of the arm 15 fill the slot 13 when the door is open and a smooth-walled arched doorway is presented. When the door is partially open a portion of the slot 13 is necessarily exposed as the arched underedge of the arm moves into the pocket P, however, the partially open doorway is symmetrically arched by the margin of the under edge 16 and the unclosed portion of arch 12, as clearly shown at Fig. 1, thus providing balanced and symmetrical appearance of the doorway even when only partially open.

While I have herein described many details of constructions, it is apparent that others skilled in the art can devise alternative and equivalent details, arrangements and constructions which are within the scope and spirit of my invention; hence it is my desire that I be limited in my protection only by the properly interpreted scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination with an arched doorway opening in a wall, having a solid jamb at one side of the opening, a slotted jamb at the other side, a slotted full symmetrical arch above the jambs and an extended wall pocket in the wall at the slotted jamb and at each side of and above the arch, track means above the opening in said pocket, a door slab wider and taller than said opening within the pocket slidably carried upon the track means and adapted to lie completely within the pocket at the side of the slotted jamb with an edge of the slab flush to'the jamb when the doorway is open and adapted to move across the opening to abut said edge against the solid jamb when the doorway is closed, an arm outstanding from the slab vo ver said. edge having its underside symmetrically configurated to the form of said arch and adapted to lie flush with the arch slot to fill the slot when the doorway is open and extend into the wall pocke when the doorway is closed.

2. The doorway defined in claim 1 wherein said track means lie horizontal to provide a symmetrically arched outline of the doorway opening, slab and arm when the References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Newell et a1. July 5, 1904 Alio Jan. 18, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS I France Apr. 11, 1925 

